Enter The Phoenix
by PhoenixJen
Summary: Set after the episode where Clay Chatton, psychic extraodinaire, contacts Dagwood and Tony in their dream. Somehow turned it into an ELF. Lucas finds out a family secret... (a little sad)


Author's note: ~blablabla~ denotes thought speech. Ooh, and I don't own anybody at all related to ye olde seaQuest, any and all original characters are my own and you are free to borrow them just once you bring them back and do them justice. Oh, and please let's just **imagine** the whole subatomic theory thingy. Tis merely an idea for a fanfic.

Dagwood watched over the sleeping form of the teenager. Alone in the Medbay, it was Dagwood's turn to keep up the vigil that had been maintained thus far by the rest of the crew. Dagwood felt utterly to blame for what had happened to Lucas. He had tried to help him, but instead had obeyed the psychic, Clay, in a vain chase after his one true wish - to not be different. But the second that he had checked on the still boy in the warhead room, he knew something was wrong. Still, if it hadn't been for Tony Fortunately for Dagwood, his simplistic mind had no comprehension of a coma, which was what Lucas had descended into.

As Wendy had put it, Clay, in the search for the codes to unlock the warhead, and gain its syntium, had literally stripped away every part of Lucas. 

"The mind is a fragile thing. It's as complex as anything is, more so. It is structured in a way that protects its owner - walls, doors, windows. A maze, difficult for a mind reader - but Clay didn't have the time, and especially not with a mind like Lucas." Bridger looked up.

"What do you mean, Wendy?"

"Clay was pressured for time so he actually went on an all-out mind attack - effectively he went into Lucas' maze with TNT. Anybody else and he could have searched them in the time he had, but Lucas is a genius. His mind is far more complex than most. And - there's a untapped wealth of power there." She finished. Bridger was confused.

"Power?"

"I'm not sure." She squirmed. "You see, I don't like to pry, but just as he died, I thought I heard Clay whisper to me, the power is gone'. I thought he meant about himself, but when Lucas was brought back to Medbay, I scanned him. His mind is a smoking wreck - Clay very nearly killed him - but it was rebuilding very quickly. But there was a whole area that was obviously previously blocked off, but now, well, it's opening up. I think Clay opened it by accident.

"You know how I said Tony was psychic? He never realised it until Clay projected the nightmare to Tony and Dagwood and Tony saw his boots - like Laura said, Clay didn't project them. But it took Clay's connection with him to open it up.

"I think Lucas may have suffered the same effect. Except his area is HUGE. The potential power is unbelievable, Nathan. If I'm right, and it **is** psychic abilities, his powers will be unprecedented. He will be ten times as powerful, more, than Clay could ever hope to be." Wendy looked down at the figure. "But Clay was sure he was dead - he couldn't allow anyone to surpass him. He was killing two birds with one stone on SeaQuest - destroy an unwitting rival, and power himself. Unfortunately he got them mixed up. But the damage is done - Nathan, I don't know if Lucas will ever wake up, and I don't know if I want him to.

"When Clay stripped away Lucas' mind, he opened up old scars that were purposefully hidden." Instantly Lucas' father entered Bridgers' head. "If Lucas wakes up before his mind is mended, he could be traumatised. But, if he waits he may or may not wake up. I just hope he waits a long time."

As for Tony, he had taken his new-found powers badly. He had never been very interested in psychic powers - he was tolerant, but it was something that never really affected his daily life. However, now he was seeing things all the time. Hearing the thoughts of those on the boat, and all around him. He could sense how tired someone was, how sad someone was, even how much coffee they had had. But Wendy had taught him one thing - tread carefully. She's set a number of ground rules: don't go poking into the minds of people without asking first, and be careful what you do with any information that you may gain. But Tony didn't really care for that - he had the same thing on his mind as half the crew - Lucas. He had fallen into a deep coma, and no one was sure if he would ever wake up. 

**_Two Weeks Later_**

It was 3am. Dagwood was once again keeping vigil at Lucas' bedside. He was sad because while Lucas was comatose, he felt like he had a duty - to watch over him. But now seaQuest was on its way back to shore - to alleviate itself of Lucas, and to have him put into better care.

"Lucas - Dagwood is going to miss you." The G.E.L.F. had seen Bridger talk to Lucas every day, and assumed it was the right thing to do. "Dagwood had no friends before - now Dagwood has many friends like Lucas, and Tony, and CaptainDagwood knows Dagwood is different, but Dagwood is different because Dagwood is supposed to be different. Dagwood knows now, Dagwood should not have tried to be different. Dagwood should have helped Lucas when Lucas wouldn't move. Dagwood sorry, Lucas. Dagwood made a mistake." He added, echoing Clay's earlier words, and he bent his head.

~It's okay Dagwood.~ Dagwood didn't hear the words; it was more like he remembered them being said. He scratched his head in confusion.

"Lucas?"

~I'm tired Dagwood. Let me sleep.~

"Dagwood let Lucas sleep." The G.E.L.F. smiled a satisfied smile. He looked at Lucas, who was still comatose.

The following morning, Wendy found Dagwood asleep in the chair next to the bed. She woke him up to try and tell him to go his quarters/corridor. Normally he protested that he was okay, but he said straight away,

"Mmm - yes. Lucas is okay now. Bye Wendy." He left smiling.

Wendy was confused but she let it slide. And then she felt it too and knew what Dagwood knew - she felt a presence that had been absent. Lucas was waking up.

He woke with a gasp - making Bridger jump. He had been watching over the boy for several hours now, knowing that by nightfall, Lucas would be gone from his life - probably for quite a long time.

"Lucas!" Lucas looked around him, instantly alert.

"I'm here, Captain." Bridger was overjoyed. But it was cut short as Lucas sat bolt upright, grabbed his head, and screamed.

"Lucas!" Wendy came running into the room.

"He's awake? How long?"Bridger answered,

"30 seconds, he barely said anything and then he started-" With that, Lucas let another heart-breaking scream loose.

~_Lucas, listen to me. I'm here._~ Wendy projected herself into Lucas' mind and found out why he was screaming. She felt like screaming herself. All the voices of the world echoed in his head - deafening him.

~_Make them stop, Wendy. Make them stop!_~ Lucas pleaded with her.

~_Picture yourself, Lucas, just yourself. Concentrate._~ She saw an image - Lucas with longer hair, wearing a uniform, _Ensign_ written on the front. Almost immediately the voices began to subside until finally, only she and Lucas remained. She bowed out, alarmed slightly - Lucas' image was from the future - he **was** psychic.

Lucas opened his eyes again fully. He gave a wan smile to Bridger and Wendy. Bridger, although worried, hugged him tightly.

"Glad to have you back, kiddo. You really gave us a scare. We were about to offload you, put you into better care."

"I know. Dagwood told me." Lucas said. No longer pale, Bridger noted Lucas looked stronger than ever. Hardly like someone just out of a two-week coma. He looked stronger than he had ever been, but shaken. 

"Lucas, you are psychic. All those voices were people's thoughts and emotions. Normally they are quiet, even psychics must go looking before they can hear them. You must be especially sensitive to them." Lucas was stunned.

"How"

"Clay. He searched your mind for the unlocking codes to the syntium in the warheads. That triggered the psychic part of your mind, just like it did Tony's. Tony is psychic too, though not as powerful as you." She paused.

"How powerful **am** I?" Wendy took a wild stab.

"I would say probably ten times more powerful than Clay. If not more." But Lucas wasn't hearing her any more. Like a staccato, an image flashed in his head. It was immensely blurred, but he could make out long hair and soft features. He heard a voice, faded, almost dead, shocked. _~Another?~ _"Lucas?" Lucas realised Wendy was still talking.

"Ten times?"

"Lucas, if that assessment is correct, then you possess the strongest powers on the planet."

**_Two Months Later_**

Everything had returned to normal on the boat. They were patrolling the south China seas at the moment, cruising towards the Straight of Magellan. Wendy had explained to him and Tony how to use their powers, but Lucas had to be careful. Tony could pry into people's lives and thoughts, but these came unbidden to Lucas. He had to block them out, not look for them. Lucas was saddened by the whole ordeal. He wished to be normal. For one thing, Tony refused to play poker with him any more. Tony had attempted to read his hand, but Lucas had used his new-found telekinetic powers to lift the cards from Tony's hand, lay them out on the table, and make the King of Hearts say Don't even try, Tony'.

However, it **did** have its advantages. One thing it had done was made the two even stronger friends. Most of the bridge crew had been alarmed by one day when Tony had been at his post, when he suddenly turned bright red. Lonnie had asked if he was all right, but of course he was. He continued to get redder and redder until eventually he burst out laughing. Lucas, off-duty, had been reading a book to him over his thoughts.

Even Wendy couldn't sense just how powerful Lucas was. But someone on the boat had let it leak that he had had a psychic event, and she was swamped by requests, thousands a day, about bringing Lucas to mainland for study. But she steadfastly refused.

Lucas wandered into the moonpool to find Darwin. He was troubled. He could barely go several hours without hearing that mysterious voice pleading with him to find her.

"Lucas sad." The dolphin interrupted Lucas' reverie.

"Darwin - yes, you're right." Lucas admitted. "I keep seeing things."

"Strange girl." Lucas looked at Darwin.

"How - how do you know that?"

"Lucas show Darwin." Lucas realised he had been projecting the image. He turned around and, as expected, there was the image of the girl.

Even now, the image of the girl was blurred to him. All he could make out was that she had a soft face, and red hair. But her voice was distorted - like through a vocoder.

"Lucas? What is this?" Bridger had been watching for several minutes as Lucas had been projecting the image of the girl.

"Um - something I saw on TV, Captain. Uh, gotta go. My shift is starting in a minute." Lucas ran. He was becoming out of control.

"Fuck you, man."

"Watch your language."

"No man, fuck you. I ain't fucking doing this. No fucking way. I only do adults. No fucking kids."

"You **will** do this, Jack, and you **will** watch your language. Here are the details. I've already set it in motion. You will have to be there to apprehend the boy. Make sure you know which is which"

"Yeah, I know. The pretty one, not the one with the mouth."

"You know the consequences?"

"If I fail, I die, right? Not **that** complicated."

"Go now."

"I'm fucking going." Jack walked out of the room. Fucking asshole' he thought to himself.

Wendy reread the email. It seemed so promising. Her door opened slightly.

"You asked to see us?" Tony and Lucas filed into the room.

"Yes, sit down. I received this email yesterday from the CPC, Chatton Parapsychology Centre. It's the best study centre for paranormal powers like yours. They have asked that I go to a one-day conference there the day after tomorrow, and that I bring you two with me. I've been to many conferences like these before. They talk about recent discoveries in the field, and various events. Would you two be interested?" She carefully left out the fact that they would be able to analyse the full extent of both boys' powers.

**_Two Days Later_**

"Welcome to the CPC Institute! I hope you will enjoy your stay here!" The meet-and-greeter shook hands with all three members of the seaQuest party, and showed them to the hall where the conference was taking place. The hall was vast, seating several thousand people. Many of the seats were filled already, but Wendy, Tony and Lucas were ushered into three VIP seats. Lucas frowned.

"I didn't realise we were VIPs."

"Wish they'da told me. I coulda gone to a movie premiere on the red carpet." Wendy was smiling.

"You two are the first two people on the plant to have awoken psychic powers as the result of in Tony's case a psychic projection, in Lucas' case, a psychic attack." She saw both boys flinch at the word attack', but went on. "I don't quite know how to tell you this, but you're both celebrities. I have been getting requests since Clay came aboard to study Tony, but now they want to look at Lucas, too. You understand why." Both nodded. They knew.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, the conference is about to begin."

The conference was fascinating to Lucas. He never knew what psychics could do. Wendy patiently explained about different psychic abilities. Some could control objects, come could mind read, some could see into the future, and a small few could control people. She herself could read minds and see into the future, but over the years she had neglected her future-casting side. Tony could read minds and have limited control over someone's actions. He couldn't force anyone to do anything, but he could plant a strong thought into someone's head, but it was still up to them to take it. Lucas was a different story, however. It seemed he had every power that Wendy had ever heard of, and then some. As the conference wore on, she noticed he was playing with the pencils on the desk in front of them. After a brief mambo with the erasers, she stopped him and told him to pay attention.

After the conference, the three of them stood up to leave, as did everyone else in the room. 

"Wendy!" All three spun round to face their lecturer for the afternoon. 

"Kirk! You've done yourself proud." She said, with a trifle more than a little distaste evident in her voice.

"Oh come now, Wendy, you're not still angry at me for dumping you, are you?"

"You know perfectly well that"

"Yeah, I know, you dumped me. Look it's all in the past. As two adults, we can get over this? I have to talk to you about why you're really here." She softened at that. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"

"Oh, um, Kirk Stricklind, this is Tony Piccolo, and Lucas Wolenczak." He shook their hands.

"Pleasure, I'm sure." He was imposing. Tall, dark, handsome, with inscrutable features - it was patently obvious why Wendy had been attracted to him. 

"Now, you fellows have probably had an awkward time of it, huh? I think you've been through a lot in the past couple of days. It's affected you badly. Let me assure you that we're not here to hurt you at all, we just want to see how it's affected your psychic powers, if there's anything we can do to help relieve what I can only imagine must be immense and intense pain you're both probably feeling at the moment." As he said it, Lucas was momentarily distracted, and the pain hit him, but by accident he released his pain onto the three around. All three cried out in agony for a split-second.

"Sorry. Lost control for a second there." He mumbled. Wendy was disturbed, as clearly was Tony. Kirk had a strange glint in his eye, though, which Lucas had to admit he wasn't too keen on. He looked eager, almost excited by the pain he had just felt.

"Lucas, is that what you feel?" Wendy was alarmed, he could tell.

"Yeah, some of the time. I'm used to it now; it probably felt a little worse for you. Sorry bout that."

"It's alright, Lucas. Why don't you come with me for a moment? I have something I'd like to show you here." Kirk led the way down a long corridor to a large room, talking all the way.

"Yes, we've been very excited about the two of you coming here. We psychics are in short supply, and we get a bit lonely, so we like to know when more of us pop up around the place. What we're going to do is see what exactly it is that you can do, how well you can do it and hopefully gauge how powerful you are." Both boys nodded solemnly. "Ah, here we are." Kirk opened the door into the room. It was perfectly white. Sleek looking machines were dotted around the room. Technicians buzzed around the machines, pressing buttons, turning switched, taking notes. Tony was fascinated but wary - it was similar to the last room where Clay had attacked him while he was in the machine. 

"Shall we begin?"

Several hours later, Tony and Lucas chatted calmly as they settled down for the night. It had been a gruelling few hours for all involved, but the answers were in. Tony was about as powerful as Wendy, and could mind read, and see very clearly into the future, but only to a certain degree, and only regarding people around him. He could also make a connection with anyone around him, which went as far as being able to plant ideas, images and words in their heads. Lucas was a different story, however. He possessed a multitude of psychic powers, almost everything that the psychic centre had identified in people. Using a new grading system, the boys' relative powers were shown. A normal person had zero ability. Clay, the previously most powerful psychic, was 100. 90% of psychics were between 0 and 30, with Wendy being 34 and Tony 33. But Lucas was off the scale, over 1100, and even then they couldn't quite pin it down exactly. Nothing on earth had EVER been that powerful. He could control almost everything - people, objects, temperatures etc. He took the news surprisingly well. The one thing that the centre was able to do for him was take his pain away - they were able to stabilise the activity in his psychic brain centre, and for that he was eternally grateful.

"Luke?"

"Yeah, Tony?"

"Um, are we still friends?" Lucas frowned at the question.

"Why would you ask that? Of course we are."

"Ah, I just thought maybe you was gonna go off and be all nobody understands me except the dolphin' on account o' you being so, well, powerful now." He smiled slightly.

"Well, Tony, there you're wrong. Not even the dolphin understands me now." Tony looked worried before Lucas grinned and flung a well-aimed pillow at him. After a brief skirmish, both dressed for bed and went to their respective bunks (for once, Tony on the top bunk). Tony had one thing more to say, though.

"At least we know you're not great at everything, kid."

"What's that." Lucas answered sleepily.

"You STILL can't win a pillow-fight."

A lone figure pressed itself against the corridor wall, and listened for any signs of life. Hearing none, it checked its tiny backpack and, satisfied, moved down the hall towards the room at the end of the hall. 

Outside the door, however, Jack faltered. He didn't like this one bit - he had read up on the kid inside. The word genius' had popped out at him first. That stopped him short. Jack, unlike other people, was not one to hold a grudge, especially at those more fortunate than he. His employer, however, didn't share that view. He wanted that kid bad. Needed him, it seemed to Jack. The sooner this was over with, the better in his opinion, although an uneasy feeling had settled in the pit of Jack's stomach and wouldn't move. He took a deep breath and entered the room. The two boys were sleeping, but he could see already his target stirring, despite Jack's attention to silence. Quick as a flash, he removed the chloroform-soaked sponge from his pocket and doused the older boy with it. Next, he moved onto his target and repeated the action, albeit with a slightly heavier dosage of chloroform. Jack had been told that the boy would probably wakeup shortly afterwards, but he was prepared - he deftly slipped out the needle and injected the boy under the crook of his outstretched elbow. As he picked up the boy, he turned around to the other occupant of the room, and whispered a pained I'm sorry.', then left. Somewhere in the depths of his nightmare, Tony heard him.

"Do you have him?"

"Yes. I do."

"Excellent. I'm transmitting the co-ordinates for you to send him to in the auto-sub now."

"No dice." Jack's lip was set.

"Wh-what?" Unaccustomed to being talked back to, the man spluttered.

"What are you gonna do to him?"

"That isn't your concern. You have fulfilled your part of the contract. Now give me the boy or you will not live to see the fruits of your labours."

"Back the fuck up. I haven't fulfilled anything, yet. I won't be party to anything sick like this. If you want your pretty little whores, get em off the street." He had done it - this was too much for his normally calm employer. He went beet-red.

"How **dare** you! If you weren't such an ignoramus, you might have noticed that the boy has the most powerful psychic powers on the planet. I need him for other purposes, beyond what your pathetic mind can comprehend. Now, bring him to me or you will regret your actions!" Jack smirked, and agreed. He inputted the co-ordinates his employer had given him into the one-man auto-sub, and sent it on its way, but not without a slight guilty conscience. 

The man formerly known as Jack's employer watched as the auto-sub travelled to its destination, his holding complex deep under the sea. The complex was unauthorised and unknown to anyone in the world except the skeleton crew who worked there, and himself. Once the sub had reached there, several helpful' security men would escort Lucas to a holding cell, and, once the search for the boy was well under way on the mainland, he could make his excuses and leave. Even if Jack had been careless enough to leave clues, it didn't matter - the remains of Jack's modest sub now lay scattered all over the seafloor.

The man watched gleefully as the sub made its way throughout the coral reef 1000 miles south of the complex, but the glee suddenly turned to shock, confusion and outrage as the sub veered off course and then, without explanation, disappeared from the screen. Before the man could say anything, though, he heard, or thought he heard, a tiny, incredibly distorted and completely unrecognisable voice in the back of his mind.

_~Nice try, buddy. He's mine now.~_

Wendy knocked on the door of the boys' room for the fourth time. She knew Lucas was a light sleeper, and, after three or more attempts, she gave up and opened the door. Tony was lying sprawled across the floor presumably having fallen out of bed. Lucas' bed was empty. Wendy knelt to Tony and shook him awake, which took some effort.

"Tony? Come on, Tony, wake up!" Eventually the boy woke up.

"Urgh, wha - Doc? What's up?" And then Wendy caught it - the lingering sour smell of chloroform. Alarm bells went off in her head. She thought-contacted Kirk and, with a little effort, Captain Bridger. 

~_Come quick! Tony has been put under chloroform, and Lucas is missing!_~

"Doc?" Wendy realised she hadn't answered Tony.

"Tony, I think someone attacked you with chloroform." She glanced across at Lucas' empty bed, and he followed her gaze.

"Where's Lucas?"

"I don't know, Tony. I don't know."

_~Wake up, Lucas. Come on, you can do it. Ah, Jesus, would ya ever wake up?!~_ That voice hit him. Lucas opened his arguing eyes, to come face to face with the girl who had haunted his dreams. She was exactly how he'd imagined her, long flowing red hair, soft features, shortish, although, to be fair, he hadn't seen the glasses in any images.

"Where am I?" She smiled.

"Nosy bugger, aren't you? Well, you're under 50,000 ft of water, several hundred miles into the middle of the Pacific ocean. In my, em, house." 

"How did I get here?"

"Feck's sake, I'da thought that who are you' woulda come first, but, sure - I brought you here. I'm not too sure, but I think someone was trying to kidnap you. Did a tidy job of it too, y'know. But, I felt you near, and could see what was going in, so I decided to bring you here instead."

"Who - who **are** you?"

"Ah, at long last. You catch on eventually. Name's Phoenix. I live here, on me own, well, except for Rob, that is." Lucas threw the girl a confused look - he was still groggy from the effects of the sleeping drug. "Rob is my computer. He's an automated system, with an AI base. He's all the company I get, I'm afraid. Would you like something to drink?" Lucas suddenly realised that he was incredibly thirsty, and in his tired state, was unperturbed by the sudden change in conversation. He nodded. "Rob, bring me two big honkin' glasses of chocolate milkshake." About 30 seconds later, a slim robot carrying in each of its arms a tall glass of chocolate milkshake entered the room. He set them down on the table and wheeled back outside. Phoenix took a big gulp of hers and motioned the word Rob' at the retreating robot. Lucas nodded, took a hold of the glass and tasted the substance. It was heaven, thick **real** chocolate milkshake, stuff he hadn't had for years. He drank it all in one go, to Phoenix's amusement.

"Are you ok to get up?" Lucas took the girls' offered hand and sat up. He felt drained.

"Why am I so tired?"

"They drugged you. Chloroform and polyethanodioxide. Chloroform knocked out yer bodily functions; polyethanodioxide put the enhanced part of yer brain to sleep. Hasn't quite worn off yet, I see. Hmmm. What to do? Lucas, where do you live? I was going to try to look you up earlier but I couldn't. I was able to knock out the autopilot on the sub that brought you in, but I didn't anticipate the fail-safe system. It came into operation just as the sub was about to dock, and crashed you into my lovely communications array. So they're down until I can get them fixed, I'll go out in my suit in a while and do it. Said I'd check on you first. When I've that done, you can contact whoever you need to come and pick you up."

"Uh, I live on seaQuest." Phoenix's eyebrows shot up.

"Really? What, may I ask, do you do there? No wonder you kept moving around. I should have thought of checking you against sub movements. I just thought it was the shielding interfering with - anyway, you were saying?"

"I'm the chief computer analyst there. I also maintain contact with the ship's resident dolphin, Darwin." Lucas stopped. "Who kidnapped me?" Phoenix frowned.

"I don't know. All I can tell you is that they're psychic too, but not as powerful as you or I. I think, given your immense power, they wanted you for, well, things I don' care to think about. The only other thing I could glean was that they're in a position of power - but I'm clueless otherwise. Sorry." Something had been niggling at Lucas' mind and now it flooded back to him as he woke up properly.

"You were calling me before." Phoenix gave a lopsided smile that was not without a trace of hurt.

"Uh, yeah I - Lucas, do you **know** how powerful you are?" He nodded in affirmation. "Well, when you were awoken', shall we say, I felt' you. I could feel the sheer power in you. It was like, whoa, God! And - well, here's the thing. When they told you how powerful you were, did they say you were the most powerful person ever?" Seeing his agreement, she continued. "Well they were wrong, I think. I sorta top you a bit on the psychic stakes, but not by much. I'm 1349 on the newest calibration scale." Lucas was instantly alert.

"What?! How?"

"I don't know. I was born this way. I was always awake this way, it was frightening. My father didn't know what to do with me but some VIP's were a little scared as to what I could do. I've been down here since I was two. In true Superman Style, the whole place is lead-lined to stop me from reaching out with my mind but only for the most part. I can still reach out, a bit. That's why I can't tell who it is that kidnapped you. Look, this isn't important now, what's important is getting you home, can you help me with the array?" After a second to take in what she'd said, he agreed.

Captain Nathan Hale Bridger, captain of the seaQuest DSV was **not** happy. In fact, he was very angry. His youngest crew member and, it must be said, best friend, had gone missing during the night from the seminar. He was furious. Tony had been put under sedation, and Lucas had just disappeared. They had tracked Lucas' movements (or the kidnappers) to a submarine docking port underneath the Psychic Centre. O'Neill was working on tracking the sub's movements but for now, all they could do was play the waiting game. Unfortunately, Bridger was far too worried to be a patient player.

Thankfully, it had only taken a day to fix the communications array outside. Lucas was quite impressed with Phoenix. Having grown up on her own, she was mature beyond her years, although she had a childish sparkle in her eye that he found oddly adorable. He found himself thinking about her as he wandered around her complex, pitying her luck, only to be brought out of his reverie by a loud Lucas! Try it now! I think I've got it this time!' 

Dinnertime came round, and it appeared that burgers, perfectly synthesised, were on the menu. The two chatted throughout the meal until, as Rob was taking away their plates, the comlink in the next room went off.

"Oh, feck, Lucas! We never called seaQuest!" Lucas laughed.

"Ah, we'll do it in a minute, take that call." She scrambled up off the pouffe and raced into the next room. Lucas sat there, trying not to eavesdrop as he thought away to himself. He could live here, it was fun. But for seaQuest His thought stream was interrupted as he heard her voice getting louder from the other room.

"No, dad, it's ok, I fixed it. Yes, I went out in the water."

"Christ, Phoenix! You know you're not supposed to do that!"

"So? The array was damaged! I had to fix it! Tell me, **tell** me that boy doesn't know what you are!" Lucas frowned. The voice - the man - he knew it. He pressed up against the wall to hear it better.

"As a matter of fact, he does. Dad, he's just like me!"

"Don't push me, child. No one is like you, you little freak! That's why you're down there, to keep you away from things like this! My god. I'm going to contact Admiral Noyce as soon as possible, have him take that kid away."

"Dad! I'm turning this off, now." It couldn't be. It couldn't! Lucas walked into the room, and cried,

"No, don't!" Phoenix turned around. Onscreen, Lawrence Wolenczak's face went white.

Tim O'Neill's fingers were beginning to hurt. He had been running diagnostics for over thirteen hours straight, long after his shift had ended, but he was convicted to finding Lucas. He was **sure** that the sub had taken Lucas on it, it really was the **only** place he could have gone. On Bridger's order, with help from the very concerned and upset Kirk Strickland, who was disgusted that such a thing had happened at his facility to such a person, the crew had checked the transport logs in and out of the facility, as well as security tapes and stills. No-one had entered or left the facility after hours that night, but the security camera in the small docking bay, where the submarine had been, had recorded a series of stills of their rogue sub. O'Neill was a driven man at this stage.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Tim jumped out of his console. His screen had begun to beep loudly. It had found something. He called up a WSKR to look at it, but when the feedback came through He rechecked it, again and again, hoping that this wasn't what he was looking for, but Captain Bridger had heard the beeping and come over the investigate.

"Have you found something, Tim?" Tim winced, reluctant to answer him. "Well?"

"Yes, Captain, but it's not good."

"Is it the sub?"

"As far the system is concerned, yes, but"

"But what?"

"Well, sir, it's the sub, but" He brought up the picture to show him. Bridger winced, unconsciously echoing the Lieutenant's earlier movements. The sub was in the picture, all right. It was spread all over the ocean floor.

"Sir?"

"Not now, Mr. Ortiz."

"Uh, sir, Admiral Noyce is on a special line. He says it's about Lucas, and it's urgent." Bridger grimaced. He couldn't have picked a worse time.

In the wardroom, Bridger made an attempt to compose himself, then opened the channel to Bill Noyce. An old friend of the Bridger, Noyce noticed the Captain's composure right away.

"Captain, you look shaken, are you alright?"

"I - Bill, Lucas was kidnapped in the early hours of the morning several days ago from a UEO Parapsychology centre. He was taken on a submarine, and we just discovered that the submarine has been destroyed, most likely with Lucas in it, although we have no conclusive evidence on that yet until we search the remains of the sub."

"Nathan, I just got a call from Lawrence Wolenczak. He said that Lucas has turned up in a highly secure facility right in the middle of the Pacific, several hundred miles south of Hawaii. He wants you to go there and get the boy out." Bridger was stunned, but a doubt shot through him.

"I don't know of any secure facility at the bottom of the Pacific. What is it? It isn't UEO."

"Uh, yes Nathan, it is, but I can't say any further, it's so classified even **I'm** not supposed to know about it. I can't say anything, but Nathan, when you get there, **don't** go inside, and **don't** ask questions. I'll be coming aboard the boat as soon as possible to sort this whole mess out, as much as I can. There's a lot more going on here than you know, but I have to get Wolenczak's permission before I can say anything about it to you, I'm afraid. Sorry Nathan. I'll have my people transmit the co-ordinates of the base to you now."

"Sure Bill. I'll go get Lucas." He switched off the vidlink, and called the senior staff to the wardroom.

Finally, after a day of agony, the seaQuest sent an unmanned sub to dock at Phoenix's home. As the sub docked, Lucas and Phoenix entered the tiny launch bay in a heated discussion.

"Phoenix, you **have** to come with me. You can't stay here! It's cruel and, well, cruel!"

"Lucas, I can't leave, I'm not allowed to. I'm a danger!"

"No, you're not. I'm almost as powerful as you, and they were willing to let me alone!"

"Someone tried to kidnap you, Lucas. Maybe it's safer if I"

"No, no no! You're you're too important for me to just walk away from now! Please, Phoenix! I'm asking you, I'm begging you! Don't stay here, it's a lonely prison!" She bit her lip, she **knew** deep inside he was right, but she had lived there alone for so long

"Fine. But I want to come back the second there's trouble, ok? And there will be trouble, I can tell. We weren't even allowed contact the seaQuest in case I might have been seen. They're gonna have a field day with this one." With a weak smile, she nodded. Lucas clasped her to him in a tight embrace, and motioned her to step into the submarine.

The minutes ticked by in the launch bay as the submarine finally left its destination. After what seemed like hours for the agitated and nervous crewman, the launch doors opened up loudly, and the missing teenager climbed up out of the sub. Not caring whether the crew minded (although he knew they didn't) Bridger ran forward and grasped the boy to himself as the last few days were finally over. 

"Good to have you back, kiddo." The crew began to clap and cheer loudly as they saw the boy was unharmed; they were thrilled he was back ok. The huge grin on his face told them all they needed to know - Lucas was fine. No one was happier than Bridger - he was relieved as he left Lucas go from his arms. Commander Ford's voice brought him out of his endlessly happy thoughts.

"Uh, Captain"

"What is it, Commander?" He was still smiling, but he looked up at his slightly concerned XO and followed his gaze to see a girl about Lucas' age with long red hair and big eyes. 

"New girlfriend, Lucas?" Lucas' eyes shot open as he suddenly remembered Phoenix.

"Captain, this is Phoenix. She, uh, she lives here. I" he looked imploringly at the captain, who got the message straight away. 

"Alright everyone, it seems as if Mr. Wolenczak is going to be just fine. You can hear it through the grapevine if you need to. Back to your stations, people." The crew began to mill out, stopping every so often to welcome Lucas back.

"Lucas, who is this?" Phoenix cut Lucas' answer off, as she stuck out her hand to meet the captain's.

"Phoenix Wolenczak. Nice to meet you."

In the wardroom, Bridger stood up at the head of the table.

"What relation to Lucas **are** you? I assume the name isn't just a coincidence." She gave a small smile.

"Yeah, it isn't. Sister, actually, funnily enough."

"How old are you?" This was from Commander Ford.

"18. Birthday December 9th, star sign Sagittarius, daughter of Lawrence and Cynthia Wolenczak officially, current residence right at the bottom of nowhere." Bridger had caught the hidden meaning behind her words.

"Officially?" She gave him a smile devoid of any amusement.

"How astute of you captain. Yes, officially. But I've been down the bottom of that ocean since I was two years old. It's strange though, I don't remember ever having a brother, but Cynthia did leave Lawrence after they found out about me. They were so ashamed of me, embarrassed about me, that Cynthia decided she didn't want any of it, and left him just after she fell pregnant with Lucas. He was born eight or so months after. I guess she went back to him after I was gone. I'm not their daughter - I haven't been since they put me down there."

"I hate to ask, but"

"Why they got rid of me? Well, Lawrence dumped Lucas on this boat, just because he's a little genius, right?" Ford and Bridger nodded. "Well, I got the same treatment, just a little more severe, and for different reasons. Lucas and I are almost identical, but where he lacks in psychic abilities, I lack in genius intelligence. Weird, huh?" By now, Bridger was stunned.

"Who pays to run the facility you live in?"

"That bucket o' bolts? UEO, of course. Bill Noyce's everlasting shame. I'm not allowed outside in case I might accidentally influence' someone or kill them or something. The whole complex is lead-lined as well as rubber lined. I can't feel or hear a single psychic vibration from in there. It's kinda funny, it was like an explosion when I came in here, it was like, whoa, PEOPLE! Everywhere, people! But as I was saying, yeah, UEO. Dr. Perfectczak rings up his employers and says oh god my wife has given birth to the most dangerous being on the planet, she could kill us all', just because I can make the dog float in thin air. And Noyce says yeah, sure.' He's regretted it ever since, I keep getting a Christmas present off him. Only person, every year." Bridger stole a glance at Lucas who was looking a little sad - this rang very true with his life, but the difference was that at least she got a present. "So the UEO, in a bid to keep Dr. Perfectczak in their employment and not someone else's, build this neat little facility that's guaranteed to keep my psychic abilities far away from the rest of the world. Nice story, isn't it? There should be a movie." 

"Captain, we can't send her back there. She's not a danger. I'm almost as powerful as she is, she's not quite as smart as I am, but I'm not a danger. My our father wants this kept quiet, and so do Phoenix and I, but I also want her to be safe, and she's not happy down there. Can't she stay here? There're loads of extra cabins, the one next door to us has been empty since Lieutenant Anderson left." Bridger sighed.

"I don't have a problem, but it seems others might." He dialled up the vidlink on the table. Phoenix paled as she recognised the number, though she had never dialled it herself. Knowing who it was Bridger was calling, Lucas put his hand in Phoenix's and squeezed it tight the reassure her. She squeezed back. Moments later, Bill Noyce appeared on screen. Bridger stood up quickly to the screen.

"Nathan! I'd been waiting to hear from you. Is Lucas back ok?"

"I'm fine, Admiral." Noyce smiled. "I'm leaving on a launch within the hour, I should be there in about three."

"Bill, we picked up a visitor." He stepped aside to reveal Phoenix sitting white-faced but determined at the desk.

"Ph-Phoenix?"

"They didn't make you an Admiral for nothing, did they?" For a tense moment, Nathan thought Noyce would get angry, but his face softened into a sideways smile.

"No, no they didn't, did they? Nathan, I thought I said"

"I didn't do anything! Lucas brought her on board, Bill, and I quite understand why."

"Yes, I do to. Unfortunately, Ms. Wolenczak your father has expressed his concern that you return to your home immediately."

"Her home is here, Admiral." Lucas spoke up. "Home is where your family is. I'm her family. She must stay here." Both teenagers looked at Noyce with an identical pleading expression - the resemblance was so striking that Noyce had to admit defeat.

"I'll talk to Dr. Wolenczak about it. Nathan, do you mind?"

"Not at all Bill. I'll see you later." The vidlink shut off quietly and Lucas looked at the sister he had never known.

"Captain, can we go get Phoenix's stuff?" Nathan nodded.

"Of course. Take Mr. Piccolo, Ms. Henderson and Dagwood with you, they can carry what you need. I want you back here by 1800 hours."

"Thank you, Captain." Phoenix gave a weak smile.

"Welcome aboard the seaQuest, Ms. Wolenczak."

Phoenix enjoyed herself on the sub talking to Tony and Lucas mentally, and at the same time conversing with Lonnie and Dagwood. She decided she liked all of the crew she had met so far, except for

_~Ah, ya get used to him after a while, Phoe. That commander's a puppy dog.~_ Lucas and Phoenix both laughed as Tony just looked innocent. _~I'm just saying, y'know, he's not as tough as he looks.~_ Lucas nodded at Tony's sentiments as Phoenix continued to speak with a slightly disconcerted Dagwood and Lonnie.

Eventually the two conversations melded and the five carried on the one conversation as Phoenix went through her possessions one by one, deciding what was to be left there for the moment, what she would take with her on seaQuest, and what (for once in her life) she would throw away. The conversation had eventually turned to psychic powers, with the boys and Phoenix doing their best to tone down their talents. Dagwood was slightly confused, he thought he was psychic too as he had had the same dream as Tony, but Lucas, with the help of his sister, explained why and how Clay had given them the same dream. As they spoke, both Tony and Lonnie noticed something that had eluded them earlier - when the siblings spoke together, there was a fluidity of speech, movement and purpose that was striking - it was very obvious, without any physical resemblance (except for the eyes - they both obviously possessed their mother's crystal blue ones), that they were siblings, although it was almost impossible to tell they had only known each other less than a week.

"Alike, aren't they?" Lonnie finally broke the silence.

"Yeah. Y'know, I'm happy for em. She's kinda nice. Doesn't really care about anything else except, well, being nice. And Lucas, she's nuts about him. You see the way they look at each other when they catch each other? Look, watch them." Lonnie did so, and as Dagwood finally understood and nodded, the two looked at each other, and Lonnie saw what Tony meant - there was a longing between the two, something born out of mutual disregard - a need to find an equal. In each other, the two had found an understanding they had previously never known.

"Right, well, last thing - I'm dreading this, I **hate** having to go through this. I'll probably end up bringing everything, but I suppose that's not really a crime." She indicated her music collection. Tony's face fell - there were at least ten thousand hours of music on there, most of it stuff that Miguel Ortiz would be proud of - real banger stuff like Metallica, Guns n' Roses, Incubus, Motörhead, Motley Crüe, MuDvAyNe stuff that could give Tony a nightmare headache, and the rest of the crew too. Lucas, however, took one look and said

"Just bring it all, Phoe. Come on, we gotta get back. It's 5.30, we gotta be back by 6." She agreed, threw the discs into her bag and walked towards the launch bay, then dropped the bag and ran back.

"Feck, Lucas, what am I gonna do about Rob?"

"Oh, um, I dunno? I suppose you could download his matrix onto a laptop and transfer it when we get back. You got space on your laptop? She nodded vigorously. Fifteen minutes later, she shut off the generator, and walked out of the home that she had lived in alone for 16 years.

Strangely enough, the launch bay was completely empty when they returned, so the macabre little gang took Phoenix's entire luggage (which was meagre enough) to her new room - right next door to Lucas, although proximity wasn't a problem - they could be at antipodes and still converse mentally.

Lonnie announced that under no circumstances was Phoenix to unpack without something to eat first, so while Dagwood headed off to do duty, Lonnie, Tony, Lucas and Phoenix headed towards the mess hall to get a bite to eat, bumping into Miguel almost seconds later. Miguel explained as introductions were made that he already knew who she was - the Captain had made an announcement to the senior crew just after the party had left on the launch. Upon hearing her musical tastes, Miguel and Phoenix fell into deep conversation, which continued all the way towards the mess hall and was politely whispered, except for the occasional fervent audible word, like riffs', or sheer aggression'. As they turned the last corner before the mess hall, trouble loomed without even so much as a spider-sense tingle for the three psychics in the group. There was the sound of intense arguing from the other end of the corridor, which died down the instant the little group rounded the corner. There, standing in front of the mess hall, were Captain Bridger, Admiral Noyce, Secretary-General McGath, and Dr. Lawrence Wolenczak.

Instantly, there was a huge tension between the two groups. Bridger looked at the Lucas and Phoenix - anger was behind Lucas' eyes, but fear filled the girl's face. Despite her huge power, the fact that if she wanted she could make anyone say whatever would suit her best, her outright refusal to do that made her fear people - she was afraid of being put back into the prison at the bottom of the sea. Unbidden, a tear formed in her eye and Bridger finally lost all respect for Wolenczak. After the abuse that Lucas had suffered at his hands for years, and now, despite the fact that she hadn't been in his presence since she was two years old, Lawrence terrified Phoenix. Noyce could see it too, but as Phoenix's legal guardian, Lawrence had the last word in all matters involving her, and he was livid.

"**What** is she doing here?" 

"She does have a name, **Dad**." Lucas stressed the word, and the hallway grew ten degrees colder in an instant. Phoenix hugged herself nervously. Veins began to bulge on Lawrence's forehead.

"Captain, may we move to a more, shall we say, **private** location?" Bridger, caught off guard, nodded nervously.

"Uh, yes. Lucas, Ms. Wolenczak, gentleman, shall we go to the wardroom. Henderson, Piccolo, Dagwood, dismissed." He gave them a look to back up those orders, and all dispersed.

Secretary-General McGath and Admiral Noyce sat down immediately, as did Phoenix, but Bridger and Lawrence remained standing. Lucas walked over behind Phoenix's chair and touched her shoulder; she put her hand up over his.

"Need I repeat, **what** is she doing here? And I don't need any back answers, Lucas. Keep your mouth shut for once in your life." Anger surged through Lucas, but he kept quiet. Luckily, Bridger didn't.

"Dr. Wolenczak! I will **not** have you talk like this. This is a civil discussion. These are human beings."

"These are my children and I will do with them as I wish. Firstly, I want that girl back in that facility ten minutes ago. She has no right to be here. She is a danger to society, she was 16 years ago and is now, even worse. Secondly, if what I am to be told is true, then I want Lucas there too. Power of this kind is a danger."

"I am only a danger to those who fear me." The voice was quiet, almost inaudible, but it was there. For the first time, Phoenix had spoken.

"What did you say?"

"I said I am only a danger to those who fear me. I'm not a danger, Dr." She was shaking - Lucas squeezed her hand tighter.

"Oh, yes you are, my dear. You can do anything you want, make anything happen your way."

"And that makes me a danger? I don't understand?" Lucas popped in.

"I do. He's jealous. Jealous he can't do what you can do. What I can do. He's not as smart or as powerful as you or I. He has to work for everything. He can get it wrong. We can't. Not anymore. We were born with advantages he never had, and never will, and it tears him up inside that he can't win all the time. So he put you away from everyone, and me on seaQuest. Torturing us wasn't good enough, he had to humiliate us too." Although he said us', Bridger knew he meant himself.

"That is ridiculous. You can influence people in a way no one else in the world can, and that makes you a danger." Bridger cut him off.

"Actually, it doesn't. For that, you'd need a cruel mind, although it's stunning these two don't have one, considering their parentage." He was treading thin ice, but he went on. "You put Lucas here out of the way not because he could control you, but because you could control him." He was walking into uncharted territory, something he knew Lucas was afraid of people finding out, but he kept on. If anything, it was for Lucas' benefit. He needed it now more than ever. The burden Bridger carried with him was too painful, it needed a release, the time was finally right. "You were afraid of yourself, Dr. You knew you were going to get caught." As Lucas thought about what Bridger had said, Phoenix read him and knew. A single tear fell down her cheek. 

"I don't know what you are talking about, Captain, but I assure you, I am right in my assumptions and actions." Wolenczak's face betrayed him, however. He was white. Whatever was going on, despite their total lack of knowledge, McGath and Noyce knew Bridger had hit a nerve, and it had rung true. 

"Oh, yes you do. Perhaps I should refresh your memory. Lucas, come here a moment." Lucas' face was pained, but he obeyed. "Take your shirt off." Lawrence's eyes bulged, and he moved to stop Lucas.

"Stop!" Phoenix had risen to her feet. "You will stay still now." Wolenczak was frozen, unable to move. "Please, go on, Lucas." Her eyes implored him on, and he found strength. He unbuttoned his shirt, and pulled his T-shirt over his head. As soon as he lifted it, he heard twin gasps. Scars littered his back. There were hundreds, faded, some bigger and deeper than others. Most were in the same shape - that of a belt buckle. McGath was horrified, and Noyce felt queasy - they could only imagine the abuse the boy had suffered at the hands of his outwardly loving father. Wolenczak was now shaking - he had been ousted. Suddenly, Phoenix seemed to have gotten the lucky end of the deal. With that anger boiling inside her, she found the strength within her to speak.

"Now, **Dad**, you are going to go home, and if you are very nice, no one will ever mention this again. Do you understand me?" Wolenczak nodded slowly, beaten.

"Y-Yes. I'll leave now." He walked out of the room. The second he left, Phoenix raced towards Lucas and hugged him, tighter than ever. They were both free.

"Put your shirt back on Lucas. You'll have the ladies in here so fast" He smiled a wry smile at her, his sister. Everything was going to be ok.

Noyce watched the two children hold each other tightly, the two of them safe in the knowledge that they would be together forever. He looked at Bridger, and saw he was thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, McGath was clueless. He had no idea what was going on. He didn't know who Phoenix was, barely knew who Lucas was. Didn't know what was going on, but he kept quiet - he felt this was something that, despite the involvement of such high up UEO personnel, he had no right to intrude upon.

"Ford to Captain Bridger."

"Go ahead, Commander."

"Sir, Dr. Wolenczak is trying to leave without Secretary-General McGath and Admiral Noyce."

"Let him go, Commander."

"Sir?"

"I'll explain later, Jonathon. Just do it."

"Aye, sir."

**_Two Weeks Later_**

Finally, life was beginning to come back to normal for Lucas, although it was a normal that he had never known before. Finally he had a family member, somebody close to him who cared for him, and whom he cared for. He was thrilled at how easily Phoenix had melded with the crew. She helped Lucas part-time with the computers, was allowed at several points on the bridge, and the other half of the time she helped Wendy, although she was in demand pretty much all over the boat. The two of them were. Rarely was one seen without the other, and once their unique talent came out, they were totally inseparable, despite the constant need for them. It had been discovered by accident one day when the two had been at lunch with the rest of the regular gang, when Phoenix and Lucas let out simultaneous sighs.

"What?" This was from Ford.

"Roast beef. Cheap, synthesised roast beef." Phoenix answered him.

"Well, Ms. Wolenczak, perhaps you would like to magically have a chicken burger just appear on your plate instead." He said, not unkindly, but very sarcastically. Wendy gasped. When Ford looked down, the roast beef on their plates was gone, and two chicken burgers sat in their place.

"How - How?"

"We changed it." The two Wolenczaks looked nonchalant. Bridger was stunned.

"How did you change it?"

"We changed the basic elements from beef into chicken. It's not hard." Lucas laughed at her.

"Come on, Phoe, it's a bit hard, admit it."

"Look, genius, just 'cos you haven't been doing it for years doesn't mean it's hard. It just takes practice, that's all."

"Are you talking about subatomic particle manipulation?"

"Bingo, Captain Bridger, sir."

"How is that possible?"

"Atoms are very bitchy, possessive things. They don't get rid of their little electrons very easily, and when they do, they go to every length possible to make sure that their charge is negative. They don't want to be changed into something else. All you have to do is figure out a way to take away or add the corresponding amounts of protons and neutrons and baddabing, baddaboom, you have changed the element. Works for everything. Watch." She closed her eyes for a moment. Lucas followed suit, but she opened one eye and said not until you've gotten better, Lucas!', then closed it again as he stopped and smiled. She reopened them a minute later.

"Not bad, huh?" Bridger was about to ask her what she had done, but Tony had spotted it.

"Jeez! The table! Wow!" Bridger looked down. A beautiful oak table had replaced the plain white plastic table. It had even been varnished. 

"That - that's quite impressive. Can you do that to anything?"

"Yup. If there're excess atoms leftover, I can leave it aside, or I can change it into free floating nitrogen atoms. Likewise, I can pull free floating nitrogen atoms from the air to substitute in if I run outta atoms. Had to do that with the varnish." 

Since then, Phoenix had been carefully teaching Lucas how to manipulate the subatomic particles. He was very good, and learned very quickly, which was an untold advantage to the seaQuest. Any time something went monstrously, horribly wrong, which was often, the two would unconsciously head for the problem. They were incredible to have around; there was no doubt about that. They could fix virtually any problem together, a feat that made them an invaluable asset, although Bridger had known just how invaluable Lucas was for a long time. Now that he found his sister, he was a totally different person. He was _happy_. He'd been contented aboard the seaQuest, Nathan had seen it. But he was truly happy now. Frankly, Nathan couldn't have been happier about it - he was genuinely happy for Lucas too. The whole crew had noticed a marked difference in Lucas' attitude and actions around the boat. After feeling mentally isolated for so many years, Lucas had finally found someone to connect with. Happy endings all around, book closed.

Except for one thing that wouldn't go away. Someone had tried to kidnap Lucas at the centre. Kirk Strickland was calling him every day for news of the case. He was trying to cause an international event if he could. Having taken over from Clay Chatton, he was eager to brush the whole sordid affair under the carpet, but he couldn't do that until he had eventually had the case solved. Bridger got the feeling that it was a case that wasn't about to be solved. There was absolutely nothing to go on. There was, however, one person he hadn't asked.

There was a knock on his door.

"Come." The door opened, and Phoenix stepped in.

"You asked to see me?"

"Yes, my dear. Please, sit down." She did so in the chair in front of his desk. He came around to lean against the front of the old desk.

"Am I in trouble? I swear, Tony fell into the swim tubes by himself, Dagwood and I had nothing to do with it, I swear"

"This has nothing to do with that." He paused. "We'll discuss **that** later, though." She grimaced. "This is far more important. This has to do with Lucas' kidnapping." She nodded solemnly.

"Yes, sir. What can I do to help?"

"I want to ask you a few questions about the person who took him. I know you don't know that much about him what with the walls on the habitat, but can we try?"

"It seems we can but try, Captain."

"Indeed. Now, was it a man or a woman?"

"Man. Definitely. They have fairly distinctive minds. He was psychic too, I'd say about 40 on the CCS."

"CCS?"

"Chatton Calibration Scale."

"Ah. About 40? Hmm. That narrows it down."

"Not to much. There are a few thousand of them out there. Most of them in North America. Once they get discovered, most psychics tend to flock to the CPC." Bridger nodded.

"Have you any other details at all?"

"No. I couldn't tell you where he was, only to say - I felt something like a ringing when I contacted him. It was like an echo - like he wasn't really there. I'm not sure, I've never felt that before or since."

"Do you mind if I call Wendy and Lucas about this?"

"Not at all. They could help." Bridger removed his PAL.

"Dr. Smith, Lucas, please come to my room. ASAP." 

Two minutes later the two arrived into the room, almost together. Lucas looked dishevelled - he had likely only just woken up.

"Lucas, Wendy, good. I'm questioning Phoenix about her involvement in your kidnapping, Lucas." He nodded in acknowledgement. "Something strange has come up, we wondering if either of you had any ideas to help." He motioned to Phoenix to take the floor, which she did.

"When I contacted the perpetrator, I felt a strange ringing. The only way to describe it is it was as if I wasn't really contacting him - it was more like an echo than anything else." Wendy snapped her fingers.

"An echo? Of course! He wasn't really there!" Bridger was confused.

"Explain."

"Well, some psychics have the ability to send a replica, almost like a decoy of themselves, to different locations, sort of the old two places at the one time' analogy. There's only a few who can do it but it's so rare it's not normally listed. I believe it's about the only ability you two haven't managed to master." She turned towards the two of them, and blinked. It was as if she was seeing double - Phoenix was standing next to herself. "Okay, so maybe I was wrong." The two versions of the girl merged themselves.

"But we won't know if that's what it is until I can find someone who can do it and then try to talk to their decoy self, then I'll know that's what I was talking to. Lucas, you can do this. I just did it."

"You did it the first day I saw you." She laughed.

"Yes, I did. It **is** hard to get it first, but once you do it once you can do it again. I know it. Come on; just think about - about the picture over there. Think about seeing it really hard." Lucas closed his eyes. "No, keep your eyes open. You have to be able to see through both sets of eyes. Good. Now, just, um, think hard about yourself looking at the picture."

"Yeah. I'm just standing there gawk-eyed."

"Funny, Mr. Smartass. This has your safety at stake here, so I'd shut up and do as I'm told. Right, now, see yourself looking at the picture from the front on. Can you see it?"

"Yeah."

"Now, try and step into yourself through your mind."

"What?!" 

"No, Lucas, don't lose your concentration!" She glanced over towards the picture. A thin, wispy outline had begun to form. "Step forwards into this picture of yourself. Do it slowly, just walk forward into the picture of yourself." Slowly, surely, the outline became clearer and clearer. "Now, tell me what you see."

"I - I see Captain Bridger." Phoenix looked disappointed. "And I see the Nautilus. And now I see you. In double." In surprise, Phoenix turned around to face two of her brother. The replica was standing smiling at her.

_~Can you hear me?~_ She nearly jumped with delight.

_~Yup. And you're ringing.~_ "Turn yourself off, Lucas, you'll wear yourself out if you do it for too long, I learned **that** the hard way, I can tell you!" 

"How do I shut it off?"

"Same was you turned it on. Walk into yourself." The two Lucas' merged. "At least now we know one thing. Whoever kidnapped Lucas can decoy himself."

"Good work, Phoenix. Well done, Lucas." With that, he dialled up the vidlink. Instantly, Dr. Stricklind appeared onscreen.

"Captain Bridger! Please tell me you have something to report."

"Yes indeed. This is" He motioned at Phoenix who cut him off shortly.

"Anne-Marie Kessler, assistant security officer. We have been conducting questioning on all personnel involved. It seems that Mr. Wolenczak felt a slight psychic, uh, mumble was the word you used, wasn't it, Mr. Wolenczak?" She looked at him severely, and sent a severe psychic thought to all in the room.

_~Play along. I'll explain later.~_ Lucas nodded.

"Uh, yeah, it felt like a, kind of, um, laugh, a laugh. It was ringing. A man's voice, not very powerful." Phoenix sent him private thanks, and continued.

"In conjunction and consultation with Dr. Smith, we have decided that the perp appears to be male, about 40 on the CCS, and possesses the rather rare psychic talent to be able to be in two places at the one time. The mumble' was from the decoy, as it were. We hope that you would input this into a search engine at the Centre, see what you can dredge up. We will be working through our list of convicted and/or released felons, trying to get a match."

"Is this true Captain?" Bridger let out a brief smile.

"Ms. Kessler is one of the best I have, Dr. She's almost never wrong."

"I will do as you instructed. I will contact you when I have found something." He shut off the vidlink. 

"May I ask what that was all about, Ms. Kessler?" Phoenix gave a false smile.

"He did it. He tried to kidnap Lucas." Three voices shouted,

"WHAT?!?!" 

"It was him, I **know** it."

"But how"

"I'm one of the best you have, Captain. I'm almost never wrong."

"What if this is one of those almost times?"

"It isn't, trust me. When I saw him I know."

"How?"

"That way he looked at Lucas. It was only there for a split-second, but it was there - desire and jealousy in one look. He missed out on the chance to control and have you all for himself, Lucas, for God knows what end. He's furious, and you could see that in his eyes." Lucas nodded.

"I, uh, I thought it was just me."

"No, Lucas. We are all that's standing in the way."

"But why would he ask us to keep investigating?" Wendy asked

"Well, think about it! If he were so neurotic about solving the case, even when there's no evidence to go on from a physical standpoint, why would we dare suspect him? Especially now we have something to go on. He's going to go search the centre's database, find matching items and give them to us, only with his name removed, but we won't suspect anything because it's impossible."

"The best way to hide is right out in the open." Bridger muttered angrily.

"Exactly!"

"So now what can we do?" Lucas asked her.

"Set him up and film it. It's the only thing we can do."

"How?" Bridger mused.

"I'm not too sure, but I think that the answer is lying in that dead submarine."

"WSKR view coming upnow, sir."

"Good job, Mr. Ortiz. Bring it up on the main screen, please." The shattered remains of the submarine came up on the front screen on the bridge. Lucas looked forward at the screen, and communicated the images to Phoenix, who was waiting in the launch bay to retrieve what was left of the sub. Captain Bridger looked over his shoulder, and, not for the first time that day, wondered what the few fragments could possibly yield. He didn't doubt the girl, though. He trusted Lucas, and Lucas trusted her. Hell, she was Lucas' sister, for Christ's sake. He had every reason to trust her, but Lucas' life could be on the line unless they figured it out.

"How's the weather outside, Mr. O'Neill?"

"Currents are stable, water pressure is three atmospheres. All in all, I'd say it's a perfect day for retrieving that stuff."

"Thank you. Bridger to Phoenix."

"Go ahead, Sir."

"You are clear to go. Be careful. Is Chief Brody with you there now?" Brody's voice came out over the speakers.

"I'm here, Cap."

"Take care, Chief. I have an uneasy feeling. This is a fairly unsettling affair."

"Yes, sir." Ortiz watched the sub go out, as did Tony from his console. Lucas, however, stood next to the Captain. The sub left the launch bay, and manoeuvred down towards the remnants of the destroyed sub that had once held Lucas, and now held nothing by seawater.

_~See anything yet. Phoe?~_

_~Not yet, Lucas. Just lots of rubbish. I'll pick it all up and bring it in. Y'know, it's a little weird working with _**_everyone_**_ on the bridge watching you.~_

_~You get used to it, trust me.~_

_~I hope so.~_

"Deploying fragment collection now." The front of the sub opened, and a large scoop unfolded and began to scoop up the various pieces of the destroyed sub. After most of the larger parts were scooped up, the scoop folded back into the sub, and a large pipe stretched out towards the remaining dust to vacuum up the smaller particles. Ten minutes later, the sub revered and headed for home.

_~Find anything?~_

_~Won't know til I look, Tony.~_

Phoenix raced into the labs, the various pieces of the sub floating in thin air along the corridor behind her. She pulled them all into the room, and set them all down on the floor. From there, she began to issue instructions to the waiting personnel.

"Okay, first I want everything cleaned up, sifted, sorted, etc. Then I want it checked up against this map of the class of submarine, and catalogued. Lucas, I want you to check world databases, find out if anybody has gone missing from the area in the last three weeks. Try mercenaries; I have a gut feeling about this one, don't ask me why, I just do, k? I'm going to have a little chat with Captain Bridger, I'll be back in a bit. Let's do this as quickly as we can." All around her nodded as she left to tell the Captain of her plans for the sub's remains.

When she returned an hour later, the lab was a hive of activity. Several progress reports were shoved into her hand, which she read in an instant, and thanked the person who had given it to her. She made for Lucas.

"Anything?"

"Yeah. I think, anyway. You said be suspicious of Dr. Stricklind, so I checked his communications logs, hoping that he used a physical means to contact whoever it was he used to kidnap me. A couple of calls were to here, the Bayonet Hotel." A picture flashed up on the screen. "Now, I checked the room number, and contacted' the hotel's mainframe." She gave him an inscrutable look. "Hey, it's life and death, isn't it? Specifically mine, I believe." She laughed and relented. "Anyway, I checked the room number and it was registered to a Mr. Daniel Carter. Obviously, I didn't think it would be that simple, so I fed the name into the registrar of freed, suspected or escaped criminals - it didn't come up anywhere. So I used an extended search, using aliases, and got a hit. It belongs to an ex-con called Jack Flynn. This guy is ex-navy SEALs. Precise, intelligent, but he lacks a certain discretion when it comes to giving orders. Been suspected of acts as a mercenary, but nobody's been able to pin it down yet." Just then, someone came over and reported that they had found evidence of organic remains in the sub.

"Ugh. I think we'd better start referring to this Flynn in the past tense. Is it human?" The technician reported that it was. "Gross. Lucas, It's gotta be this guy. Only one way to check, I suppose. Let's give this a go, shall we?" Lucas looked at her in slight confusion. She winked and motioned for the technician to bring over the sample of the remains they had found. "This might be a bit gross." She closed her eyes for a second to steady herself, and then she picked up the seawater soaked sample, and held it tightly in her hand. She concentrated intently on it for a moment; slowly, a mist began to form over her outstretched hand, and, to the alarm of the technicians present, a head appeared out of the mist.

_~Is that him?~_ Lucas overcame his horror and looked at the rapidly fading head. No doubt about it, the head was Flynn.

_~That's him.~_ Suddenly, the head disappeared.

"Lucas to Bridger."

"Any luck?"

"Yes, Captain. We found organic remains in the submarine. I think you'd better come down here, sir."

Bridger marched purposefully toward the labs, Commander Ford in tow. Upon arrival, he took in the sight. About thirty or so of the science team rushed around before him, examining the hull fragments and various pieces recovered from the damaged submarine.

"What have you found." Lucas jumped in surprise, and turned around.

"Well, firstly, we've identified the last occupant of the sub, Jack Flynn." Ford let out a whistle.

"Jack Flynn? Wow. I knew him. He went off the wall. Good guy at heart, but willing to do almost anything for money." A small fact that had been niggling at the back of Bridger's brain struck him suddenly.

"I don't know about anything, Commander. Do you remember they retraced the steps he took from the sub to the boy's room? It should have taken a lot less time than it did. Camera shows it. He must have paused at a couple of places. May have been having"

"Second thoughts, yes sir, but the fact remains he did it." Phoenix cut him off.

"I think it went further than that, Commander. When I contacted Stricklind, he was furious, but it wasn't because I had just stolen Lucas away from him. It was residual - like he'd already been angry. I think maybe our Mr. Flynn here had a last-minute change of heart."

"Maybe." Ford relented slightly.

"Do we know what downed the sub?"

"Yes, sir. Just worked it out. Uh, the engine stopped working, almost as of its own accord. There's no damage to it at all, in fact nothing to indicate that there was a problem at all. All of the joints are clean joints. It's almost as if the whole sub just fell apart. The pressure coming in would have crushed the occupant, in this case, Flynn. I thin, and by now you shouldn't be surprised by anything, that whoever did this pulled apart the sub by psychic power, most likely telekinesis. That's the ability to move objects with your mind. It's a common gift; Tony has it to a small degree. Wendy's a rare psychic, she doesn't possess the talent at all, I'm afraid. No matter. Whoever did this must be very well equipped with this talent, and very at home with it too - otherwise they wouldn't have been able to stretch out the thoughts to the sub underwater. I think that's about all we have to say."

"One last question and it's the big one: how are we going to catch Stricklind?"

"It's not a finalised plan, but it's not too shabby. Basically, we find someone who Stricklind hasn't seen or met on the crew, or on land. We send them in acting as friends of Flynn, and tell him we know everything. The evidence we have is enough to go on, but if Stricklind finds out about this and gets frightened, he'll make a move." Suddenly, Tony came running into the room. He had obviously run all the way from the bridge; he was out of breath.

"Sirs! Phoe, I"

"Jeez, Tony, take a breath. Here." She shoved a glass of water into his hand; he drank it down in one gulp. "Now, what is it?"

"Phoe, Lucas - you know who did it? Who took Lucas from the room?"

"Yes, Tony, we're pretty sure we do."

"I heard him."

"What?!"

"I heard him. When I was asleep, I heard him, I swear. He said I'm sorry'. I only just remembered it." Lucas snapped his fingers.

"Tony, if I can find a clip of him talking, can you recognise it? Then we can know for sure that it's right!"

"Sure, Lucas." Lucas leapt into action, attacking keys on the keyboard with fervent aggression totally unlike him. He was completely driven. With every passing minute, the group behind him edged in closer. Finally, he found it.

"Got it! It's Flynn's trial. Just find where he makes a statement There!" Flynn was answering to examination. Tony tapped the screen.

"That's him." Phoenix grinned. 

**_CPC Institute_**

The door slid open with a slight whoosh. Behind his desk, Dr. Stricklind stood up to stop the person at the door.

"I'm afraid I'm unavailable right now" His secretary came running into the room in front of a small man.

"I'm sorry Dr., but he wouldn't take no for an answer!" The man brushed rudely past her, and she backed out of the office, fear evident on her face. The door slid closed again. The man smiled at Stricklind, a thin-lipped abomination that chilled Stricklind to the core.

"We have some very important business to discuss, Dr."

"Who - who are you?"

"You may not know me, but I believe you met my son several weeks ago."

"I - I'm sorry, I don't seem to recall"

"Lucas Wolenczak." Stricklind was stunned.

"You're Dr. Lawrence Wolenczak! What - what brings you here? If it's about the safety of your son, why I can guarantee"

"I know how safe he is, he's on seaQuest. You had to get him off seaQuest before you could try and kidnap him." There was a moment of shocked silence. 

"How - how did you figure it out?"

"Lucky guess." Stricklind was furious, but he bowed, defeated.

"What is it that you want here? Do you want to have me arrested, is that it?" Wolenczak's face took on that disturbing smirk again.

"Oh no, Dr. Stricklind, not at all. I want you to help me kill my two children." Aside from totally shocked, Stricklind was confused.

"Your **two** children? I checked the records, Lucas doesn't have any siblings."

"I think I know my own children, Dr. Phoenix was taken away when she was only two, for the fact that she had an unparalleled psychic talent." Lawrence noted in triumph that a jealous gleam flashed across Stricklind's face. He had him. "And, despite the recent discovery of my son's vast power, I'm afraid to say that my daughter is still unparalleled."

"How powerful?"

"You use the Chatton Calibration Scale here, do you not?" Stricklind nodded. "I believe that she is valued at about 1340 on that particular scale. Stricklind's eyes bulged.

"That - that is unprecedented, it's impossible"

"Not impossible, my dear man. It exists."

"Then, if you'll forgive me for asking, why in God's name do you wish to kill them? Why not instead harness their combined power? I was developing a machine it can transfer psychic power. I had intended to transfer Lucas' power to myself" A thought occurred to him. "Your daughter, what does she look like?"

"About 5' 4", blue eyes, long red hair. Normally wears black clothes, for simplicity's sake." He noted Stricklind's panicky expression.

"If that is true, then she, and most likely all of seaQuest, know about me. Perhaps not why I tried to kidnap your son, but most definitely that it was I. I have been trying to throw suspicion away from myself by keeping up contact with the seaQuest, but I'm afraid that the last time I contacted them, two days ago, your daughter was there. Captain Bridger wanted to introduce her, but she cut him off and gave a different name. She knew it was me." Lawrence looked at him long and hard.

"I wouldn't put it past her. Tell me about this machine that you have."

"Well, you strap the psychic into it, attach a number of diodes to it, and turn it on. You then strap yourself into the other end. It takes a few minutes, but it converts all their psychic power to an electrical signal which then transfers across to you." Lawrence grinned.

"I like the idea of that. If we can capture my children, then perhaps we can strike a deal say, you may have Phoenix's power, and I will have Lucas'."

"That sounds acceptable. How will we lure them here?"

"We may not have to. I have a feeling they will be coming anyway. If they truly have figured out it was you, they will be coming soon to either set you up, or arrest you if they have sufficient evidence. And then they will be ours." He was pleased to note the greedy expression evident of Stricklind's face. He had him.

Back on the seaQuest, the plan had been decided upon. They would send the four psychics aboard the boat to the institute, under the pretence that they had to feel vibrations' in the corridor leading from the room Lucas and Tony had been sleeping in right up to the boat bay. This was perfectly plausible, as, although unsubstantiated, psychic vibrations could be said to remain in the air months afterward. Supposedly, it was to assess whether or not the person who had kidnapped Lucas was a psychic or not, which would help to assess if they had been hired or not. This was also the safest plan, as if anything happened to anyone on the team, the others would sense it immediately, and alert seaQuest. They had called the institute, and Dr. Stricklind was more than accommodating. For the third time, seaQuest approached the CPC Institute. As they came within launch range, Lucas, Phoenix, Wendy and Tony readied themselves in the launch bay. Bridger was worried.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Positive."

"Can't you check?"

"You mean see into the future? Sure I can but I don't need to. It's an open close case, Nathan." Wendy was nervous, he could see it, but she was smiling too. "Besides, seeing the future around the CPC is a bit difficult. There is so much psychic activity - it's almost impossible to get a clear signal. I doubt either of our two geniuses could manage it. A little ironic, but any investigations into perfecting future-sighting are done in a remote location to clear the interference." Bridger gave her a hardened look; he was clearly worried, but she was unfazed. "We'll be fine, Nathan. They're the two most powerful psychics on the planet. They can handle anything."

The journey took seconds, it seemed to Lucas. He conversed silently with Phoenix, not wanting to disturb Wendy and Tony, who talked to each other. 

_~You're nervous.~ She grinned at him._

_~Of course. This is the guy who tried to kill you.~_

_~No, he tried to kidnap you.~_

_~Maybe, but he did kill Jack Flynn. Call it fear of death.~_

_~You fear death?~_

_~A little. Makes me human, don't you think?~_ His smile broadened, and he hugged her.

_~I guess. You ready for this?~_

_~As ready as I'll ever be. Let's do this.~_

The launch docked underneath the institute, and the party made its way slowly along the corridor, playing along to the effect. Every so often, Tony would stop and appear to concentrate, while Wendy asked did he feel anything. Eventually, the after much deliberation, they finally reached the room that Tony and Lucas had slept in. Less than twenty seconds later, Dr. Stricklind arrived in the door.

"You're here! My staff alerted me. Have you found anything?" Wendy squared up to him.

"I'm afraid not. Myself, Lucas and Tony have all been attempting to sift through the signatures here to find out if there were any vibrations there. So far, nothing. It looks like perhaps they had a hand in it." Stricklind nodded dismissively. He turned to face Phoenix.

"Ah, yes, Ms. Kessler, wasn't it?"

"That's lieutenant Kessler. Indeed. I'm here to accompany the party. As assistant chief security officer, it's my duty to accompany any parties like this when Chief Brody is unavailable." She gave him a piercing, officious look. He turned away and smiled inwardly. There was a resemblance between her and Lucas, it wasn't obvious but it was there. Little Phoenix, you can't fool me. Not with the help of your father'

"Of course, I understand. Perhaps you would all like to come this way. We have the results of the database results you asked for a number of days ago. It took some work, but it's there - everyone who matched the set parameters." Wendy was surprised but she showed no notice of it - but then she realised. Stricklind had to keep up pretences. He thought they didn't know it was him. She flashed him a wide grin.

"Lead the way, Kirk." Stricklind led them out and along the corridor to the main complex. Purposefully ignoring Phoenix, he talked to Lucas about possible future work and research with the Institute, to which Lucas noncommittally replied. They walked through the main complex, outside and through a large building. They entered an elevator and he pressed the button for the very lowest basement, eight floors down.

"It's for the heating, you see. By setting it so low down, the computer complex is actually surrounded on three sides by the ocean, so of course that cools the room and the computers down. I think you'll find out mainframe system quite impressive, Lucas." Lucas' eyes gleamed.

_~D'ya hear that, Phoe?~_

_~I do. Don't worry. After we're done here I would imagine you can play to your hearts content.~_ The lift doors opened, and a malevolent voice entered their thoughts.

_~You had your fun, little girl. Now you're _**_both_**_ mine~_ Before anyone had time to react, however, four huge men entered the elevator and dragged out the seaQuest crewmembers. Too late, Lucas heard the hiss of a hypospray, and felt the cold against his neck. He saw Phoenix fall, before he felt his own legs go out from under him. He was unconscious so fast he never saw the ground fly up to meet him.

Finally, after swimming for what seemed an endless time, Lucas finally surfaced the sea of consciousness. His foggy eyes opened, and the sight he saw before him chilled him. He himself was clamped down onto a metal table that was almost vertical, with an IV line connected to his arm. He looked to his left; Tony and Wendy were still unconscious on the floor in the corner of the vast room. Right in the middle was a huge machine, silver, gleaming and cold. He saw through blurred vision Dr. Stricklind busying around the machine, and his father. Lawrence Wolenczak was watching Stricklind working the machine, a twisted smile curving across his thin lips. The machine rotated, and Lucas nearly wept - sleeping, strapped into the machine was his sister. Her long red hair covered most of her face, but he could make out scrunched up features - she was doing her level best to wake up. Lawrence whipped around suddenly to face his son. He stalked towards the ever more alert boy, until they were almost nose to nose.

"Well, then, Lucas. You're awake." Lucas was raging, he tried to manipulate the ions in the clamps holding him, but to no avail - he couldn't even think straight. "I don't think you'll be able to do anything at all for a long time, that's polyethanodioxide in that IV." Lucas tried to speak.

"Wh-what are you doing to her?"

"Well, isn't that a deal? That machine just there is specially made for little freaks like you who have all that power and no idea what to do with it. It can suck out all of your power and put into someone else."

"Phoenix - no"

"Catch on fast, don't you? Yes, pretty soon she'll be all gone I'm afraid there are a couple of bugs still to fix the little bitch won't really be anything except catatonic when we're done. Neither will you." Lucas' eyes bulged in fear, but it he could see that time was running out; Stricklind was beginning to strap himself into the other side of the machine. Lawrence walked off to help him.

A sudden noise to Lucas' left alerted him. Lucas tried to surreptitiously look sideways, and he saw that Tony was stirring. Keeping one eye on the two men at the device, Lucas watched Tony wake up and mouthed sssh' to him as soon as the seaman was able to understand what was going on. Secretly, Tony sent out a cry for help to Bridger. Using his mind's eye, he could see the Captain mobilising a team to rescue them.

Lucas' mind was in turmoil. His father and Dr. Stricklind were going to somehow steal their power! How, he didn't know, but he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to help, not with his psychic powers knocked out. Tony suddenly whispered,

"Luke, I think your sister's waking up." Lucas reverted his gaze to the girl. No doubt about it, she was definitely waking up. Her eyes began to open, and instantly they were filled with terror. Lawrence saw this straight away. He finished strapping in Stricklind, made a final check on Phoenix, and said something to her that Lucas couldn't hear, but judging from her reaction, he guessed that it was what was going to happen to her. During this time, Tony managed to manoeuvre his way towards Lucas and had begun to bite his way through Lucas' IV. He stopped immediately the instant that Lawrence turned around to face his son.

Lawrence then pressed several buttons, and the machine began to whirr into life. The great device began to spin, with Phoenix on one side, and Stricklind strapped in on the other. However, the evil smirk soon left Lawrence's face as he noticed Tony and Wendy had moved, despite the fact both appeared unconscious.

"**How** did they get here?" Lucas thought quickly.

"I moved them."

"How? You're doped to the gills full of"

"It didn't work. I moved them." Lawrence pulled out a gun, and aimed it at Tony's head.

"You try anything to try and save that little bitch, and I'll blow your friend's brains out." Lucas was stricken, but Lawrence turned his attention away from his aim, and Tony acted. He used all the strength he had to bite Lawrence in the leg. Wolenczak dropped the gun in pain. He glared at Tony.

"You'll regret that, boy."

"What're ya gonna do, shoot me?" Insanity gripped Lawrence's already delicate mind, and a slow, maniacal turn crossed his eyes.

"Perhaps I will." He moved to pick up the gun, and in that instant, Tony reached with all his might, encircled the IV line in his mouth, and yanked it out of Lucas' elbow. Blood trickled down Lucas' elbow, but he didn't care. Lawrence hobbled back to Tony, gun in hand, and for a moment, Tony panicked. The gun aimed at Tony right between the eyes. Lawrence pulled the trigger.

The blast never came. Tony opened his eyes to come face to face with - a bunch of flowers. He let out the breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. Lawrence turned on his son, and saw the blood dripping to the floor from the pinprick point in his arm.

"You. You" He swaggered forward and began to punch his son, who, still not strong enough to free himself, was utterly defenceless. Blow after blow met their mark as he tried to beat Lucas into merciless submission. Tony pulled against his ropes, insane with anger against the man. Suddenly, Tony felt his bonds had been broken - he was free. Summoning all his strength, he rose up and pulled the man off of his friend. A quick but lethal right hook under his jaw, and Lawrence Wolenczak was no longer a problem in this situation. He fell to the floor, out cold. 

Tony fell against Lucas, and began to force open the clamps, but Lucas' eyes, almost completely hidden by a mask of blood from Lawrence's beating, pleaded with him to stop.

"You - you must stop the machine." Lucas tried to say.

"I gotta get you out"

"No. She'll die. You have to shoot it." Tony looked at the device; by now, it was spinning so fast that he couldn't make out either of the figures. He began to protest.

"Luke, I might hit Phoe"

"She'll die anyway. You have to Tony, it's the only chance we have to stop this." Lucas finished weakly. A strong, calm voice penetrated his thoughts.

~Do it now, Tony. Shoot.~ It was Phoenix. Bolstered by this, Tony took the gun, and, with an air of resignation, fired the weapon three times at the contraption. After the third shot hit, the machine began to slow down. Taking the opportunity, Tony wrestled the clamps tying Lucas down, and let out the boy, supporting him. Eventually, the machine came to a stop, with Stricklind facing outwards. A quick glance at the man's chest told them that he was dead - one of Tony's bullets had hit him. Tony raced around the side of the machine, tripping over one of the bullets. The last third bullet had hit the engine of the machine. As quickly as possible, the boy wrenched the bindings off Phoenix, and carried her in a fireman's carry back to Lucas. Lucas knelt on the ground and took her in his arms, but the second he put his arms around her back to support her, his heart skipped a beat - he felt warm liquid. He looked up at Tony's hands - they were bloodstained. Tony looked at them himself, and his eyes widened in horror. Lucas began to panic, but reason punctuated that panic, and he reached out to her.

~Phoenix?~ After what felt like an eternity, her voice came through to his thoughts, weak and erratic.

~I'm here, Lucas.~

~Hold on, Phoe, the crew is coming. Everything's gonna be ok.~

~Not this time. I - I'm too weak. Tell Tony that gun is a powerful bastard. Went right through Stricklind into me.~ She opened her eyes for what would be the last time.

~No, Phoenix, just hang on. You can't do this to me!~

~Can't help it, ya bitch.~ She gave the weakest of weak smiles. A wave of pain overcame her, and he held her tightly. ~What - what happened to you? You look like shit.~

~You don't look so great yourself. I think Dad happened to me.~ A dark shadow passed over her face.

~Promise me something, Lucas. After this is over, tell Tony not to feel guilty. He did what he had to do. He saved the world. I - think this is it. Look, remember this. I love you, Lucas. I always will~ A quick as he could, he responded.

"I love you, Phoenix." With a shudder and a gasp, Phoenix closed her eyes, and lay horribly still. A tear formed in Lucas' eye, and Tony put a hand on his shoulder. Wendy began to stir, and, with a great bang, the door to the lab burst open, revealing half of the crew of seaQuest, led by Brody and Bridger. Commander Ford was close behind; his face set with grim determination. Lucas gripped the still body close to him, and held his sister close to him, feeling the warmth seep slowly out of her.

Bridger burst open the door with every ounce of strength he could muster. The sight that greeted him shocked him to the core, for he knew immediately that they were too late. In the centre of the room was a vast machine that was in disarray. Hanging limply from it was Dr. Stricklind. He was dead. Over to the left of the room was Dr. Wolenczak, most likely unconscious. Wendy was sitting up on the floor, obviously only just waking up. Kneeling on the floor was Lucas with a figure in his arms. Tony had his hand on Lucas' shoulder. The amount of blood around Lucas told the Captain all he needed to know - he was holding a dead body. Frightened from the noise of the doors, Lucas looked up, and before the Captain had a chance to think, he saw two things that shocked him - Lucas' was cradling his sister in his arms, and his face was almost destroyed. The security teams fanned out behind him, but Bridger was solely focused on his friend. Gently taking Phoenix and handing her over to Tony's waiting arms, Nathan assessed the boy quickly. His nose was most certainly broken, doubtless. His entire left cheek was swollen, suggesting a broken bone there too, and he was seeping a yellow fluid from his nose and ears, which was evidence of a skull fracture. In short, he needed urgent medical attention. He turned to Wendy, who had read his mind and called for help to anyone in the rest of the institute, but it was no use - they were going to have to move him. A shaky voice invaded his thoughts.

"Cap-Captain." He turned back to Lucas.

"It's ok, Lucas. Stricklind is dead. We're arresting your father now."

"She's dead." 

Bridger saw no point in lying to the boy. "Yes, Lucas, she is. Try not to think about that now, okay? We'll sort you our first, and then we'll find out what happened."

"I shot her." Tony said strongly behind the Captain.

"What?!"

"I didn't mean to. Lucas said to shoot the machine to stop it before she died and Stricklind took all her power. I fired three shots. One bounced off it, one hit the engine, and the other hit Stricklind. It went straight through him and into Phoenix. I killed her." Bridger thought instantly.

"Rather her die herself than as an empty shell. She would have wanted it this way."

"She did want it this way. I still can't justify it, though. I killed her."

"You did what you had to, Tony. You did the right thing."

"Yeah, maybe. I don't wanna be around when Lucas wakes up, though." Bridger looked back to the boy as Wendy was readying him to be moved. He had fallen unconscious. 

One Week Later

Finally, Lucas had been given the clearance to return to duty. He was in fairly good physical shape, save for his temporarily disfigured face. He was assured, however, that his face would return to normal after it had healed. Contrary to his words, Tony stuck by the boy after surgery, and made sure he was there when Lucas finally woke. Tony needn't have worried. Lucas forgave him as soon as he realised what was bothering him. He understood it was a difficult action to take, and that it had gone wrong had only made it worse. However, as Lucas had pointed out, she would have died anyway, and she **had** pointed out to him that he had done the right thing. Tony had saved the world, as well as Lucas' life. Finally, Tony saw the logic in it and acquiesced. 

However, the state of Lucas' mind was somewhat different. He had become distant and listless. He felt like half his soul had been ripped away - Phoenix was dead, never to return. Other members of the crew felt a loss too - Tony was miserable, Lonnie was unhappy, and even Dagwood was visibly down. The whole crew had taken on a sombre mood over the past week.

One night, Lucas was sitting out by the moonpool. Darwin swam over, and in two words summed up everything Lucas had been feeling since his sister's death.

"Lucas sad." Lucas gave a half smile at the simplicity of the statement.

"Yes, Darwin. I'm sad. Phoenix died."

"Sister gone?"

"Yes Darwin."

"Sister come back?"

"No, Darwin, I'm afraid not. Phoenix can't come back now."

"Phoenix love Lucas."

"Yeah."

"Lucas happy! Phoenix love Lucas. Lucas not sad." For this first time in a week, Lucas genuinely smiled. He thought about his sister, and the tears began to fall freely, mottling his already scarred face. 

From behind the other side of the moonpool, Bridger came out from where he had been silently observing Lucas, and, without a word, silently held him. Lucas rocked back and forth until finally he fell asleep from pure exhaustion. Nathan picked up the slumbering boy and carried him to his quarters, laid him in his bunk, and left. He had a feeling Lucas would be a little better now.

The next morning, Lucas awoke, refreshed. He took a shower, and had a little breakfast, and then walked into Phoenix's now empty cabin, intent on sorting through her belongings. He decided that Miguel would appreciate some of her music far more than he would, and so made a pile of her music to give to him. He went through notebooks and real books until eventually he found something that totally threw him - her laptop. He booted it up, angst welling up inside him. When the main screen finally appeared, something appeared which he had totally forgotten about - Rob. His mainframe had been adapted onto the laptop. Lucas was lost for words. Here was a programme that had been with Phoenix since she was about 6 years old. It was essentially her. Lucas set about typing at a furious rate. When he finished, he activated the programme - and up popped Phoenix. All he had done was adapted the interface to resemble his sister, but that changed the whole thing so fundamentally. The programme already knew everything about her, all her favourite songs, dishes, movies, everything. With the right AI base - his sister could live on.

Hours later, Lucas wandered back into his room. Tony noticed him straight away.

"Whatcha got there, Luke?"

"Oh, nothing Tony. Nothing much." For now, that was his little reminder, his little secret.

The End.


End file.
